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7 Free Apps to Help Simplify Your Life

Staying on top of things is hard. All it takes is a few late nights at work or a kid at home with the flu, and suddenly you’re behind! Chores and other household duties start backing up, appointments are forgotten and the bottom of your to-do list disappears over the horizon.

Since life is full of unexpected complications, why not make some things a little easier? Here are seven free apps that will help simplify your life:

Even though we’re in the age of automatic billing and online payments, junk mail is still going strong. Nothing makes your house feel more cluttered than a big stack of coupon catalogs, so give junk mail the boot with PaperKarma!

Simply snap a picture of the offending catalog or mailer and within 24 hours they’ll unsubscribe you from the spammer’s distribution list. Not only will this help keep your home tidy, it helps the environment, too!

Throwing away pizza boxes and soda bottles is pretty straightforward. But what about old car batteries or that busted BBQ grill from last year? If your garage or storage shed is full of stuff you don’t need, but you aren’t quite sure how to throw away, iRecycle can help!

This app tells you how to properly dispose of over 300 materials and helps you locate an appropriate disposal facility in your area. So, if your spring cleaning plans include purging your garage, grab iRecycle!

If you’ve ever struggled to remember when you need to change your furnace filter or test your smoke detector, you’re not alone! BrightNest is an all-in-one home management app that helps you stay organized and on top of your home’s needs.

From basic maintenance to cleaning tricks to home design ideas, BrightNest provides personalized suggestions for you and your home, builds a simple schedule, and sends you reminders when it’s time to tackle something. Plus, the free app has tons of tips and tricks to help with spring cleaning.

Between school, extracurricular activities and play dates, keeping track of your family’s schedule can start to feel a little like air-traffic control at O’Hare International.

Cozi is an organizing tool that allows you to create a family calendar and set up reminders for important appointments. You can also store your grocery lists and jot down quick to-dos for yourself as you think of them!

Once you start keeping all this info in one place, you’ll be amazed by how much more organized you start to feel.

Available for: iOS + Android

Mint

This free iPhone app is the can’t-live-without-it way to keep track of your finances. Making financial decisions is easy when you can view real-time information about your accounts, check the status of your budget, and get instant access to your account balances and purchase information.

No wonder it’s been named Best Finance App by the 1st Annual App Awards and TIME Magazine’s 50 Best iPhone Apps of 2011. Check it out for yourself and discover why over 1o million people love Mint.com.

It’s easy to overthink paint colors. You spread out fifty different color swatches on the kitchen table and try to make a decision, but instead you just second guess yourself. Color Capture speeds things along by making it easy to identify colors on the go.

If you see a certain hue that really catches your attention, take a photo of it on your phone, and then just tap an area of the photo to see the name and color code. Forget paint swatches – just find a color you like and snap away!

Keeping a few plants in your house is a great way spruce up your décor, but keeping those plants alive isn’t always easy. If you’ve ever been guilty of forgetting to water or fertilize your plants, Koubachi can be the green thumb that you’ve always wanted.

Simply add your plants to the app, and Koubachi will send you push notifications when it’s time to care for a plant. The app even takes the season and your location into account when it sends you information!

Available for: iPhone

BrightNestis a free site that provides tools and tips to homeowners to help them save money, get organized and keep their home in great shape.